Introduction:
In today's post I intend to conclude our brief survey on the canonicity of the New Testament and the historical process of its formation. We noted in the first post here Growing Christian Resources: P1 The relevance of canonicity and how we got our New Testament the practical importance of such a subject. In the last post here Growing Christian Resources: P2 The relevance of canonicity and how we got our New Testament I outlined and cited early records from the church fathers that traced the canonization of the New Testament. In today's post we will attempt to give the reader a completed account of the timeline of the New Testament's canonization, along with a defense.
Questions surrounding the exact numbers of the books
Many within the world of liberal, critical scholarship claim that the N.T Canon was invented or put together in 325 A.D at the Council of Nicaea under the watchful eye of Emperor Constantine. This was the thesis of the wildly popular "Davinci Code" that was in vogue in the early 2000's.
Yet testimony from the early church fathers and early lists of New Testament books demonstrate that the acceptance and use of the New Testament books as God's Word was far earlier. Critics who persist in denying this point purposefully ignore the evidence below.
a). Papias was a student of Polycarp, who in turn had been a student of the apostle John. Eusebias, the first church historian, notes that Papias acknowledged the authority of the four gospels as early as 135 A.D, only 40 years after the apostolic age.[1]
a). Papias was a student of Polycarp, who in turn had been a student of the apostle John. Eusebias, the first church historian, notes that Papias acknowledged the authority of the four gospels as early as 135 A.D, only 40 years after the apostolic age.[1]
b). As already mentioned, Polycarp, Papias mentor, had been himself a student of the apostle John. Polycarp in his book entitled “First Apology” asserts the authority of the four gospels and Pauline epistles while sharply distinguishing them from the then popular but non-canonical books of “The Shepherd of Hermas” and “Apocalypse of Peter”.[2] Polycarp is dated 115 A.D, some 25 years after the close of the apostolic age.
c). Ireneus, Bishop of Lyons, wrote his work “Against Heresies” to record and critique the growing Gnostic threat that was attempting to undermine the orthodox, Bible believing church of his day. Irenaeus not only mentions almost all of the 27 books of the New Testament but effectively denounces all of the Gnostic gospels. Iranaeus wrote his work in 180 A.D, some 85 years after the apostolic age.
d). The Muratorian Fragment, the earliest list we have of the New Testament books outside the apostolic era, can be dated to 170 A.D. In it we have almost a complete record of all the New Testament books except two. This canonical list represents a good portion of the early church’s opinion of what constituted the New Testament and shows that all 27 books were virtually all but universally recognized, with the entire collection uncontested by the third century (200's).[3]
The length of time it took for the early church to acknowledge the New Testament Canon?
The point is that even though the Gnostic gospels had begun to be written by 150 A.D, yet a core of 20 of the 27 books were universally recognized and in use well beforehand, with 2nd Peter, 2nd and 3rd John, Hebrews, James, Jude, and Revelation recognized and in use by large segments of the church by the end of the second and into the third centuries (see endnote #3 below for more details that I just referenced above). Some further confirmation of these points can be noted below.
For instance, in a recent discussion I listened to between Professors Ben Laird of Liberty University and Greg Lanier of Reformed Theological Seminary, they noted how the New Testament books were used in sub-collections: The four Gospels, Paul's letters, the General Epistles in individual or sub-collections of their own, and John's Apocalypse (the whole discussion is at the link here Interview: Ben Laird and the modern state of NT canon studies
P.R. Ackroyd, a New Testament scholar writes:[4]
“While there was some considerable dispute over some of the N.T books, the major writings were accepted by almost all Christians by the middle of the 2nd century (150 A.D).” With the major evidence for the development of the N.T Canon considered, it is now time to see how all of this evidence lays out in a time-line. This timeline gives a three-part account of how our New Testament came to be recognized as the canon.
CHURCH HISTORY’S RECKONING OF THE N.T CANON
Part 1: Apostles, Post-Apostolic/Pre-Nicaean Church Fathers
1 & 2 Peter 3:14-16 & 1 Timothy 5:18 mention the early Christian's recognition of the a good portion of the New Testament books well within the days of the Apostles or about three-quarters of the way through the 1st century. The Muratorian Canon (170 A.D) mentions every New Testament book but three, indicating that the early church within a century after the passing of the Apostle John. By 200 A.D. the Latin church father Tertullian states his refusal to use any other gospels other than the four. This indicates his awareness of the Gnostic Gospels and the early Christians' immediate rejection of them.
50 -----100 A.D-------------------------150 A.D----------------200 A.D------------>>
Epistle of Barnabas (120 A.D), Papias (120 A.D), Irenaeus (180 A.D) quote or refer to almost all the 27 New Testament books.
Part 2: Nicaean and Post-Nicaean Church Fathers (Nicaea refers to Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D)
<<-----300A.D-------------------------------------------------400 A.D
Athanasius “Festal Letter” Council of Carthage listing all 27 books 367 A.D recognizes canon
<<-----300A.D-------------------------------------------------400 A.D
Athanasius “Festal Letter” Council of Carthage listing all 27 books 367 A.D recognizes canon
Part Three: Ancient New Testament Translations that testify of the recognition of the 27 N.T Books as being Canonical
Ancient translations Athanasius “Festal Letter” Council of Carthage of Greek originals listing all 27 books 367 A.D recognizes canon N.T writings (Itala, for whole church 397 Syriac, Coptic) verify unanimity of 27 books from 200-300 A.D
200 A.D-----------300 A.D-----------350 A.D------------------------400 A.D
Church is being persecuted. Council of Hippo agrees on 27 books 393 A.D, reaffirming what church generally had believed since shortly after the days of the Apostles.
The above chart gives a realistic picture to the development of the canon. The problem among radical critics of the Bible today is their purposeful disregard of the testimony of history. No greater New Testament scholar than Kurt Aland has commented on this error of judgment among modern New Testament scholarship:
“These insights gained from the history of the canon are fundamental and of vital significance for the history of the text – New Testament textual criticism has traditionally neglected the findings of early church history, but only to its own detriment, because the transmission of the N.T text is certainly an integral part of that history”.[5]
Closing thoughts It must be remembered that the church did not create the Bible, but rather the Holy Spirit, through the scriptures, began, shaped, and guided the church. My hope is these last few posts have given readers a bird's-eye view of the relevance and overall process of the New Testament Canon. To God be the glory!
Endnotes:
[1] Bettenson, Henry. Documents of the Christian Church.
[2] McDowell, Josh. Evidence that demands a verdict. Volume One. Page 37.
[3] It is worth noting that the first century entailed God's giving of the 27 books and the early church receiving them and using them as Divinely revealed, authoritative revelation. As I've noted in the prior two posts, scholars who specialize in the field of "canonics" (the particular study of the development of the New Testament canon, men such as the late R.L. Harris, Roger Beckwith on the Old Testament side and Michael Kruger and Greg Lanier on the New Testament side) have noted how in both canons, books circulated in sections and clusters among God's people. With the New Testament we find the four Gospels came to be used as a group, Paul's letters were copied as a group, with our earliest manuscripts attesting to the eventual bounding together of these core books.
The remainder (Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, Jude, and Revelation) were individually used and became solidly universally recognized by the third century or 200's A.D. The above sources (Muraturian fragment) demonstrate that the consensus on all 27 books was on a practical level all but locked in within the first 300 years of church history.
[4] Ackroyd, P.R and C.F Evans. The Cambridge History of the Bible
[5] Aland, Nestle and Barbara Aland. The Text of the New Testament.
